Hi! It’s me, the guy in the picture! I have received so many comments abouts the article, it’s unbelievable. It’s like I’m actually real or something! So happy!

So, a little update, I’ve been accepted into housing, these will be my last days on the streets, April. So I intend to get cleaned up, a new wardrobe, a week’s worth of showers, four straight days of sleep, and I’m fresh as a daisy. Pity there isn’t a Starbucks anymore on Albany. It’s so hard to find a decent cup of coffee around here anymore.

A note to Shelter Support and Housing administration, invest in cameras. Put cameras up everywhere but the bathroom. Heck, then the bathroom would be the place to mug and steal from other residents. I guess there is no real easy solution. The problem of addiction and thievery in the shelter system is as old as my time, at least. Those lockers don’t do much when people pick or break the lock. Also, for lockers staff must open, perhaps make new staff wait a while before they’re permitted to open lockers. Both scenarios I’ve faced here in Toronto as well as across Canada and the US. Until Broadway I was not able to say I’ve ever had a problem with staff. Staff were never the problem, the clientele was. So the solution would be to change the clientele. How do you do that? I don’t know, there’s the idea that you could open shelters that have zero tolerance drug and alcohol policies. The best shelters I’ve been to were the one’s where if you came back intoxicated, you slept it off outside. There were still theives but the junkies couldn’t come in.

Oh how I’ve waited for this one… a little hypocritical there, eh, TPS? I’ve been more help to the homeless of this community than any ‘services’ that you’ve offered. The best service I ever got from your side of the iron fence (I really wanted to say fist) (oops, did I type that? Oh well the editor will get it later.) was from the OIPRD. The services you offer are the same ones I’m deliberately avoiding because of (shock and awe) CRIME! I wonder whose job that is? ‘Let’s get you off the street where you can protect your belongings and into a place where the other residents can relieve you of them before you end up back out here again without all this stuff.’ This is basically what you’re telling any fool you end up sending to Maxwell Meghan or, Goodness forbid, Satan House… Oh Seaton House… Sorry. My bad. Seaton, not Satan. I’m probably going to hell for that one.

So, I guess I should take this time to reflect on my time out here. I’m not going to lie, I loved it. From the friendly community to the free food at the end of the night, the Annex has been extremely good to me and I am eternally grateful for the tolerance and hospitality of the neighbourhood. The Annex is always my recommendation to visit if and when you hit Toronto because it really feels like home; and y’know? It really does.

Sincerely,
Jeff